Irving
was found to be an
anti-semitic, racist, pro-Nazi
polemicist who deliberately
falsified the historical
record.
-- Australian Jewish
News

Australian Jewish News , January 25,
2002

$35,000
debt may thwart Irving visa bid

by Stefan Bialoguski

AN outstanding $35,000
debt to the Australian taxpayer has thrown
up a further obstacle to Holocaust denier
David Irving's latest attempt to
enter Australia.

Irving's previous visa application, in
1996, was rejected because of his history
of criminal convictions and
dishonesty.

Last August, Irving filed another visa
application, ostensibly to allow him to
promote his book, Churchill's
War, in this country.

But the Australian High Commission, in
a
letter posted on Irving's website, has
queried his application.

Australian immigration officials have
again raised the issues of his 1992
conviction and subsequent expulsion from
Germany for Holocaust denial, his lying
while under oath before a Canadian
immi-gration adjudicator, and a British
High Court judge's 1994 finding that he
had given false evidence while
trying to
purge an earlier contempt of Court.

In addition, the High Commission has
now raised the issue of "an unpaid debt oI
$35,140 to the Australian Government for
litigation costs awarded to the Minister
[of Immigration]".

The debt was incurred by Irving's
failed court challenge of the government's
refusal of his 1996 visa application.

The government has given Irving until 8
March to put his case.

Irving was found
to be an anti-semitic, racist, pro-Nazi
polemicist who deliberately falsified the
historical record to make it conform with
his political beliefs by a British judge
who rejected his attempt to sue
Professor Deborah Lipstadt for
libel two years ago. Irving says he plans
to respond this week.

In comments
posted on his website, dated last Friday,
Irving accuses the Australian Government
of "seeking grounds to exclude me".

He dismisses the accusations of
dishonesty as "absolutely untrue" and
accuses the German Government of
suppressing free speech.

He concludes: "I will get out a reply
to the Australians in the next day or two,
after taking legal advice. I suspect that
the final hurdle they will put up is the
$35,000 costs."

Executive Council of Australian Jewry
president Jeremy Jones said:
"Despite the fact that he owed Australian
taxpayers this money, he involved himself
in extensive, time-consuming and costly
litigation against Deborah Lipstadt --
litigation which he lost. It is staggering
that he seems to believe that Australian
taxpayers should treat him as a charity
case."

The
above news item is reproduced without editing other
than typographical